Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 12790, Phineas Dodge, Mass.

SERVICE
Mass.
Dodge, Phineas or Phinehas
NUMBER
S. 12790
CONTENTS
Cardel

347
New York
Phinehas Dodge
of Steuben in the State of New York who was a Private in the Company commanded by Captain Stollbrook of the Regiment commanded by Colonel Phephara in the Militia line, for the term of the War from January 1781 to 17
Inscribed on the Roll of New York at the rate of Eighty Dollars per month, to commence on the 21 st day of Mar 1831 and
Certificate of Pension issued the 22 nd of August 1832 and sent to P Dodge Batavia Seneca Co N York
the Roll on _____ day of 182 _____ and notification sent to at _____ Pension commencing on the of 182 _____
Amount due on 4th of } Mar 1832 $ 80 Semi annual due } 4 Sept " 40 $120
{ Revolutionary Claim, Acts March 18, 1818, May 1, 1820. } June 1832
Recorded Book 2 Vol 5 Page 80
986
1831 ...
! 9 82

Steuben County } State of New York } S. Phinehas Dodge of the Town of Prattsburgh in the County of Steuben and State of New York being duly sworn before me William Helm one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of said County deposited and saith that he this deponent did in the month of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty one, enlist as a private soldier for the term of three years in Captain Holbrook's company in the fourth Regiment commanded by Colonel Shepard of the Massachusetts line on the continental Establishment: that he served as such pri- vate soldier in said Company and Regiment from the said month of January in the year aforesaid until the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and fore part of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty three at which time he received a regular written

discharge from the said Army signed by General Henry Knox as this deponent believes that this deponent had his house consumed by fire together with his said discharge about twenty years since - This deponent further saith that by reason of his reduced circumstances he needs the assistance of his Country for support -
Sworn this 23 d Ap r 1818 - } Phineas Dodge before me J. H. Nelson
State of New York } Steuben County } ss: I William Helm of the Judges of the Court of Common pleas of the County of Steuben and State of New York do hereby certify that it appears to my satisfaction that the Phinehas Dodge named in the pre- ceding affidavit served as a private soldier in the revolutionary war against the com- mon enemy as at the time and in manner stated in said affidavit as witness my hand this 23 d day of April A. D. 1818 - J. H. Nelson

D
FRED
Hon. J. K. Polk President of the United States Washington
Nov. 29. 1845. President's Off.
Application of Thineas Dodge for appointment
Post Recd Nov 28/45 P.M. Post Office
Rev. Thineas Dodge pension.

Clarkson November 3 1845.
To the Rt Hon J. K. Polk President of the United States
Sir Know ing that Your Hon is at the head of our Government
I Presume upon your Patience to assist me a little if you would Not think hard to assist me to procure some relief under my Present circumstances. I Served my Country in the the Revolutionary army for Three years lacking only about one Month and I never received one cent the whole time except one Month's pay out of a Store at Newburg.
Now I thank our Government in granting me a Pension of Eighty Dollars a year. Now the circumstances is this in 1819 they gave me a Pension of $46 a year Thru Life I Drew that some untill 1820 When Congress that Past an Act that none should be Benifited by that Act Except those That had not got any any Property. I drew that sum about one Year and Six Months. and in that time by my Industry and by the help of what Government gave me which was about $130 I Accumulated a little Property. So I did not apply any more untill after After the Act that was past in 1832 which I have received $80 a year since that time. And now in my old age have lost all my property and and have become poor we met with one Disaster after another untill we lost all we had to . In 1838 in August there came up a Storm which was very severe and the Lighting struck our Barn which which was a valuable one it was thirtyfive by fiftytwo and it was filled as full as it could be stored and we drew in a load of wheat at a height to Let the mow Settle so we could get it in in the morning and before morning it was all in ashes we had a fine Span of horses worth three Hundred Dollars a Threshing machine and other Property the total loss was about $1500 and as soon as our Barn was burnt our Creditors came upon us and one disaster after another and Stript us of All we had, and finally Left us without any thing to help ourselves, in our old age, my wife is Eightyone last March and I Eightyone years old in December next, and we are not able to do any work we have had some Considerabel Siness besides. I have laboured hard Thru Life I have Settled on and Cleared off Eight New farms and now I am Left without any thing to help myself with in my infirm situation

It is that our Necessity Moves us to Appeal Your Honor for Assistance it is not because that we want to accumulate great Property But to have sufficient enough to Support us Thru Life. If Congress would see fit to grant us so much as will make us comfortable Thru Life or renew my first Pension I Shall receive it as A deed of Charity. that all we want for if we had ever so much Property when we come to die we cannot be benefited by we cannot carry any of it out of the world with us. But if we have an Interest in Christ's Kingdom that is all my Desire. for that is of more Value than all this world. I have now given you the outlines of my situation.
Now seeing that I was one of those who fought and bled for our Country and obtained our liberties against one of the most Powerfull Nations on the Earth and gained our freedom When there was but a handful of men in our Country and by the Assistance of the providence of God we got the Victory Now I think that our Government ought not to see one of those old Veterans suffer for a little the want of a little. Therefore I Appeal to Congress that Honorable Body for Assistance in granting us some Relief
Now then I implore your Assistance in procuring to us a little for our support and we shall esteem as a deed of Charity. It is generally Believed an talk of by our Constituance that congress would do no more than justice to the old Revolutionary Soldiers if they should raise their Pension so much as to be Respectable to our Government and a Comfort to the old Veterans - God
Now I do Pray that in his Great goodness will so guide and Direct the President and all that is in Authority in a Sober Richous and Godly Manner so that our Government may be Godly and quietly Governed. Be pleased to excuse me in writing to you such a Broken broken Letter for I am Old and my faculty is so reduced that I cannot write so it is hardly intelligible But I concluded if I wrote my Self it would be better excepted than it would if I had employed any body else to write for me.
This from your friend and well wisher
Phineas Dodge

P.S. I should like to receive a line from your Honor if it would not be too much trouble if your Honor should write please to Direct to Clarkson Center County of Monroe State of New York. I will just mention that it costs me three Dollars a year to obtain my Pention so I do not get but $7.75 a year I will just mention one little anecdote just before our Election last fall there was some that went on me very hard that if Mr Polk got in to be President I should lose my Pention I told them that I did not believe it. So I gave my Suffrage for Mr Polk

Reopen
12,790 INVALID.
am
File No. 12,790
Phineas Dodge
Prev Beer War
Act: June 7 th 1832
Index:—Vol. _____, Page _____
[Arrangement of 1870.]

4,477
New York
Phinehas Dodge 4 Private
Massachusetts Line
In the army of the United States during the Revolutionary War
Inscribed on the Roll of New York at the rate of eight Dollars per month, to commence on the 23 d of April 1813
Certificate of Pension issued the 18 th of Nov r 1813 and sent to William Helm Esq. Judge — Steuben Co.
Arrears to 4th of Sep r 1818 - 4 \frac{12}{30} = 35.20
Semi-ann. all ce ending 4 th Mar 1819 - 48.00
Shepard $83.20
{ Revolutionary claim, } { Act 18th March, 1818. }
Three years
Petersburg h Steuben Co.
See letter to P. Dodge, 30 May 1829.

Phineas Dodge
Payable semi-annually---the first pay- ment on this certificate will be made on the 4th of March next, at the Pr o Bank U.S. City of New York
Phineas Dodge
Recorded

WAR DEPARTMENT.
REVOLUTIONARY CLAIM.
I CERTIFY That, in conformity with the Law of the United States, of the 18th of March, 1818,
Phinehas Dodge late a Private in the Army of the Revolution, is inscribed on the Pension List, Roll of the New York Agency, at the rate of eight dollars per month, to commence on the twenty-third day of April one thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
GIVEN at the War Office of the United States, this eighteenth day of November one thousand eight hundred and eighteen
J. C. Calhoun Secretary of War.

Bath 20th Oct 1818
The Hon.
The Secretary of War
Washington
District of Columbia

Enclosed is Phinehas Darge's amended Documents in favor of his claim for a pension - please to advise me of the result -
Yours with Present
Henry Willes
Bath - Stephen Co. N. Y.
The Hon.
The Secretary of War

State of New-York }
Genesee County } ss: Phinehas Dodge being duly sworn according to law doth depose and say that he was inscribed on the Pension Roll as a revolutionary pension under the act of March 18 th 1818 and was dropped therefrom in 1820 on account of property; That he enlisted into the regular service of the United States as a private in the 4 th Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Colonel William Shepard in January 1781, for three years, and continued in said service until he was duly discharged in November or December and which month this deponent does not recollect, 1783. And this deponent further says that at the time of making affidavit his first application for a pension under the act of 1818, he resided in the Town of Prattling in the County of Steuben and State of New-York, and that his present place of residence is in the Town of Elba in the County of Genesee and State last aforesaid.
Sworn and Subscribed
This first day of August 1832 before me
Phinehas Dodge
S. Cummings Judge of Genesee County Court
State of New-York }
Genesee County }
Clerk's office } ss. I Timothy Fitch Clerk of the County of Genesee do hereby certify that Simon Cummings Esquire is now one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Genesee, duly commissioned and sworn as such Judge and that full faith and credit are to be given to his acts in that capacity. I further certify, that I am acquainted with the hand writing of the said Judge and verily believe the signature to the foregoing affidavit to be his.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto affixed the seal of the Court of Common Pleas of said County, and subscribed my name, this first day of August eighteen hundred and thirty two.
Timothy Fitch Clerk By S. Pringle Deputy

Pension Office
23 d May, 1829.

To the Hon. John H. Eaton, Secretary of War.
Phineas Dodge, of Elba, in the County of Genesee and State of New York, would most respectfully represent. —
That upon the passage of the first Law, granting pensions to Revolutionary soldiers, in 1818, your petitioner was in so low circumstances that he could conscientiously comply with the provisions of said Law, in asking his government of the pension. He did so; and received the same, until the passage of an amendatory act, requiring a new declaration, and also requiring evidence of still greater poverty than was necessary to be proved, to obtain the pension in the first instance.
When your petitioner applied for the pension in the first instance, he had recently moved into this place, on to a new farm, taken up on credit. By the careful and fortunate use of the money received from his country, and a few years of successful farming, and a few small but fortunate bargains, he was placed so much above actual pauperism, upon the promulgation of the amendatory act, that he could not expect to succeed in an application under it. He did not apply; and of course his pension was stopped in 1820.
Since that time, your petitioner, with many other revolutionary soldiers, who spent their best days, and laid the foundation of disease and poverty in the service of their country, have repeatedly petitioned the government to allow them (being excluded by some trifling variation of a general rule, not, probably intended, or thought likely to effect many exclusions, by the framers of the laws,) to participate in the justice and bounty of their country.
Your petitioner has had too frequent occasion to

observe with pain and mortification, that the invidious distinction introduced, by the operation of the laws upon this subject, have pointed to a sure, but disgraceful course, by which the substantial gratitude of Government can be secured. If painful industry and frugality, in old age, had raised the claimant a few dollars above the criterion, he had nothing to do but indulge in idleness and intemperance until he came within the prescribed rule, to be sure of the public bounty. Your petitioner was aware of this, and had his principles permitted, he might have been now in the enjoyment of a greater income from his government, than the rental value of his property, which now prevents him from receiving that bounty.
No favorable modifications of the laws having taken place, your petitioner had contented himself with petitioning from year to year, and had determined to continue to claim justice from the government, until it should either be granted, upon a modification of the laws, or rules, of the War department; or until age and infirmity, (not idleness or profligacy,) should bring him within those rules.
Such were his feelings and determination, when the rule of the late Secretary of War, of the _____ day of Decr. last, was published. Your petitioner immediately set about making out a declaration and proofs, which would bring his case clearly within that rule; and had just got these proofs, consisting of exemplifications of deeds - affidavits - appraisals, &c - when he was informed that the rule had been rescinded, and that which had been in force, previous to its adoption, re established.
Your petitioner cannot help thinking that there is an unreasonable hardship in the treatment of the claims of the founders of our country, independence.
A law is passed in an old age, after justice has been withheld from us for more than thirty years, to grant

as a trifling compensation for our services and our sufferings. — We alone who are in actual need of the assistance of our country, apply, and obtain that assistance. A few, are prudent and economical, and a few years enjoyment of that relief, raises us above aligist poverty; and by training, in our old age, the hardships of a new settlement, where land is bought cheap, we can lay the foundation of a comfortable decline of life, with that assistance. But, the moment we begin to find ourselves commencing upon comfort and prosperity; and having, in full reliance upon the fidelity and integrity of our government, contracted debts, for the purchase of thriving property, our government hears of our success, and a new law, or new is passed, by which any hopes are blasted, and we are left to struggle with debts and embarrassment.
At length, the importunities of the claimants, or a sense of justice, induces the government to adopt a more liberal rule; by which, with great expense in proofs, and compliance with forms, we are again invited to call for the long delayed public justice. We set about a compliance; and as in the case of your petitioner, incur an expense of forty or fifty dollars, and are about to present a clear and undisputed case, when suddenly we are met by a reversal of the rule, and our hopes are again blasted!
This is but a simple, unexaggerated case, such as I have literally encountered.
My object in this petition is to present my government with a case which shall show the glaring impropriety of holding out hopes to men in our condition and circumstances, and then disappointing them. And also to pray your honor, to examine my original declaration, on the files of your office, which will show the nature of my services and my claims; and to pray you either to renew the grant of my pension, under that declaration, or to advise me whether a declaration and proofs, prepared under the rule of the late Secretary of war, tho' not presented until after its revocation, can be received, and the pension allowed.
I make this request with the more confidence, from the

Belief that a gallant soldier, in the discharge of civil duties, in our republican government, may without offence be appreciated with plainness and frankness, by all men, and more particularly by soldiers, older than himself.
The revocation of the late rule, is the more mortifying to your petitioner, that it should have been adopted by an administration he had opposed uniformly, and revoked by one he had done all in his power to establish. And the jeers of the enemies of the latter, are no alleviation of that mortification.
In full reliance that justice will ultimately be done - in this case, I repeat my earnest request that your honor will patiently examine it, and at least favor me with a reply, and your advice.
With great respect and consideration Your obt. Servt.
Reuben Dodge
Pension Office 25 th May, 1829.
P. S. If not an improper request, I should like, if the Secy of War has any doubts in this case, that he would submit it to the President.
Reuben Dodge

SAUG 12.45 1862 Cambridge Mass Dear Sir, For the War Department
Hon Lewis Cass.
Scutary at New Washington
FREE
5021 N. 10th St. Omaha, Nebr.

Sir,
Datavia August 1. 1832
Enclosed I transmit you my pension certificate and affidavit with the view of having my name replaced on the Pension Roll. Agreeably to the late act of Congress, and the Regulations promulgated from the War Department relative to the proceedings to obtain the benefit of that act. I suppose, that the enclosed will be sufficient to entitle my name to be replaced on the Pension Roll. If not I should like to be advised in what particular the proof is deficient. If my pension payments be resumed I should be pleased to have them made at Buffalo
Hon Lewis Cass. Secretary of War.
I am Sir, Respectfully your most obt & humble
Servt.
Phineas Dodge
Pension Roll

Phonics Dodge
Admire

Staten Island State of New York } ss. I Edward Howell Clerk of the County of Staten Island in the State of New York do hereby certify that William Helm was of it whose signature appears to the preceding affidavit and certificate was at the date of the same one of the acting Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of said County and duly commissioned as such -
Given under my hand and the seal of my office this twenty fourth day of April in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen
E Howell

State of New York Steuben County -
ss. I Thomas M. Burney first Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Steuben do hereby certify that Phinehas Dodge the person described in the within declaration and certificate, has made it appear to my satisfaction that he the said Phinehas Dodge is now and was at the date of the within declaration in reduced circumstances and did at that time and still does stand in need of the assistance of his country for support Dated 14 th Oct. 1818- Thos. M. Burney
Phinehas Dodge
State of New York Steuben County } ss-
I Edward Howell Clerk of the County of Steuben in the State of New York do certify that Thomas M. Burney whose signature appears to the above certificate is now the first Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of the said County and duly commissioned & qualified as such & that William Helen mentioned in the within Affidavit and certificate, who was at the date of the same a Judge of said court has since been removed from his said office of Judge
Given under my hand and seal of office this 14 th day of October 1818- E. Howell

State of New York Ontario County Clerks Office
ps: In testimony that Matthew Warner whos name is subscribed to the within Certificate was on the day of the date of the same one of the Judges of the Court of Common pleas for said County acting under the Authority of said State and that the within is his signature I hereunto subscribe my name and affix the seal of said County at Canajoharie this 12 th day of October 1818
Wm W. W. Nairn Dep. Clk

Ontario County 30th, Cornelius Treat of the State of New York } Town of Henson in the County Ontario and State of New York Being duly sworn before me Matthew Warner one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas of said County - Subscribed and saith that he this deponent in an affidavit the first of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & eighty two joined the Swift, Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Col. Henry Jackson and the Company commanded by Capt. Rockbrook there became acquainted with Phinehas Dodge & served with him in said Compa- ny for the term of one year or more and Phinehas Dodge was then discharged from said service this Deponent further saith that previous to his leaving the Regiment that it was commanded By Col. Shepard
Cornelius Treat the above Subscribed and sworn this 10th day of October 1881 before me Matthew Warner
He here by certifies that I am personally acquaint- ed with the above named Cornelius Treat and that he is a man of a good property is not an objection for a pension and is a man of a good Moral Character
Matthew Warner

State of New York Ontario County ss. Clerks Office
In Testimony that Stephen Phelps whose name is subscribed to the within Certificate was on the day of the date of the same one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in said County acting under the authority of said State and that the within is his signature I herewith subscribe my name and affix the seal of said County at Canandaigua
This 22 nd day of October 1818
Wm. W. McNair Dep. Clk.

State of New York } Ontario County } ss On the 10 th day of October 1818 before me Stephen Phelps A Judge of Ontario Common Pleas personally appeared William Shepard of the Town of Canan- dayagua in the County aforesaid who being duly sworn deposeth & saith that he is personally acquainted with Phineas Dodge Now a Resident of the Town of Prettys- ville in the County of Steubenville and that the Deponent was acquainted with the said Phineas Dodge in the Revolutionary Army and knew that he enlisted in the County of Berkshire in the State of Massachusetts in the Month of January or February in the year 1781 and was mustered in the fourth Massachusetts Regiment Comman- ded by Col. William Shepard in the 6 th Com- pany commanded by Capt. David Holbrook as a private Soldier on the Continental Estab- lishment and that he continued in said Service to the close of the war and has no doubt of his receiving an honora- ble discharge from Service by Major Genl. Knox he the Deponent Deponent served at the same time as an Ensign in the same Company and Regiment with the said Dodge and knows that he had the reputation of a faith- ful Soldier and further saith Not. Sworn to and subscribed the day & year aforesaid at Canan- dayagua before me
Stephen Phelps A. J. & C.
I certify that I am personally acquainted with the Deponent & know him to be a credible witness Stephen Phelps